Samsung's obsession with beating Apple began shortly after Apple
launched the first iPhone in 2007, and those new "smartphones"
began killing off the dumbphone or "feature phone" market.

In 2009, Samsung created this document to talk about that shift:

US Federal District Court

Nokia, of course, is now not much of a problem for either Samsung
or Apple. But notice how Samsung realized — at still a very early
stage in the smarpthone war — that "emotional" warmth of a
smartphone interface was crucial in gaining and retaining
customers.

We're guessing that the uptight dude in the white shirt is NOT
where Samsung wanted its brand to be. Note how cool and relaxed
the Apple character is. The rest of this document — you can
download it all here — repeatedly talks about redesigning
Samsung's user interface's to be more like Apple's, at least in
terms of friendliness.

Fast-forward two years, and Samsung's war against Apple seems to
have become more intense, according to the documents.

It's 2011, and the company is planning for 2012:

US Federal District Court

Later that year, Samsung began running this famous — and famously
effective — campaign, in which Apple fans lining up at a store
for a product launch were portrayed as delusional losers:

Through 2012, the campaign against Apple took its toll.
Eventually, the media began writing stories about how
Apple seemed to have lost its mojo, and how cool and
interesting Samsung's products were becoming.

Now in 2014, we're seeing the endgame in this battle as Apple
prepares to launch in the fall iPhone 6, which will likely be a
large-screen version of the iPhone to compete with Samsung's
Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note phones.